Scaling Sustainable Entrepreneurship for Impact: DesignKnowledge for the Use of Digital Technologies

Digital transformation helps organisations become more efficient while increasing their outreach and targeting new markets. However, it also makes the organisational design more malleable and can blur or even disrupt a firm’s boundaries. For sustainable entrepreneurs who develop business models for sustainability (BMfS), this is a Faustian bargain, as they trade independence for more potential. In this in-depth case based on action and design science research, we accompanied and evaluated the design of a BMfS with digital technologies. To evaluate for rising tensions, we looked at the relevant dynamics within the entrepreneurial firm and the digital business ecosystem. Besides a proposed solution model and its evaluation, we present design principles of contingency, re-configuration, and alliancing. This nascent design knowledge explains dynamics that occur when developing business models with digital technologies.